Thank you.

Let me clarify so people understand why I am asking. I really had hoped to get nearly flamed
 when I asked the question ... but I haven't quite gotten that. I'm not trying to discourage
 anybody who uses Perl, but I needed to know how much still exists.

I began using Perl in the late 1990's, and began participating in the DBI users group, then,
 maybe about 2000, I began participating on this group. That was two jobs ago. I used Perl e
xtensively at that time. The job I took at that time was as a development DBA. I also began 
developing using Java, and stopped using Perl for CGI, but still used it extensively as an a
dministrative tool for SQL Server, and for a language for doing conversions between things l
ike Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQL Server. I also developed some administrative tools, an
d some user apps for Windows and Unix/Linux using Perl ... some of them were really slick. M
ost of the ones where I originally developed the user portion in Perl, I later re-wrote the 
user portion in either Java/Swing or in C++. But on that job, I ALWAYS used Perl as my main 
administrative scripting language.

At the time I began on these lists, they were very active. I learned, and I continued after 
learning in order to give back to the community ... I benefitted a great deal from what I le
arned on these communities, so I contributed to try to keep it going.

Now, I work for the big 'M.' I support SQL Server as a field engineer. It is much different 
from what I understood before coming here, and believe it or not, our managers often encoura
ge us to continue participating in groups like this. It benefits other users of our products
, and keeps us informed of what is happening in the real world. When we participate actively
 in active groups, we can sometimes point to this as an additional point for our reviews. Ho
nestly, all of these things, and the fact that I LOVE working support kept me interested in 
this group. I loved being able to contribute to it.

However; now, I find that there is virtually no activity to speak of on the group - it has d
windled to virtually nothing. The people I used to see actively participating and answering 
questions on this list seem to have disappeared.

I said that I'm a field engineer, and there have been a couple of times where I have been ab
le to help customers with problems on a system that was ever touched by Perl ... but only a 
couple of times over a period of time that I won't mention. I have helped several with Java 
J2EE apps interfacing with SQL Server, and quite a few with other issues. These happen incid
entally - I focus on SQL, but need to have these skills when the SQL problem turns out to be
 somewhere else in the application.

I began noticing that the volume of activity on this list has dwindled to almost nothing. Th
at, and what I see in the field seemed to tell me that either people couldn't find the list 
(Very possible - it's not as accessible as it once was), or else there just aren't many peop
le learning Perl with SQL or other MS database platforms anymore. With the volume of SQL in 
the world (and the growth of SQL in the market), that made me think that this might be a dis
appearing niche. The fact that I haven't been flamed for suggesting it hasn't restored my co
nfidence that it isn't ... I wish it wasn't, though.

If it is a disappearing niche, then things ranging from material we have in our SQL Performa
nce Tuning and Optimization workshop to how I want to spend my extra time, and whether or no
t I need another hobby outside of work are affected. That's why I'm asking the question.

So if I re-phrase my question: I'm not trying to discourage ANYONE from using Perl with MS D
atabases, but are people learning this anymore? It seems to me that the ones who have used i
t in the past will continue to use it some, but maybe less and less. And it seems that very 
few people are learning it anew. Is this what you see?

Steve Howard

-----Original Message-----
From: Foo JH [mailto:jhfoo-ml@[...].com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 7:57 PM
To: Steve Howard (PFE)
Cc: perl-win32-database@[...].com
Subject: Re: Anyone still monitor?

I'm frequently connecting to dbs on Win32 platforms. No major issues
(except for blobs, which I try to avoid) to report. DBI is very stable.
What else is there to ask on the mailing list?

Perl on Win32 imho is still very relavant to administrators, developers,
and just about anyone who wants to muck around with Windows stuff, and
has the intention to eventually migrate to an OS-independent platform.
PHPers do it. Javaers do it.

Of course if you plan to stick with the big M, .Net might be more appealing.


Steve Howard (PFE) wrote:
> 
>  I haven't seen a single question here in almost 3 months now, so I'm
>  wondering if anyone still monitors, or if anyone still uses Perl for
>  Win32 databases. I know I use it less and less, and I'm wondering if
>  I'm holding on to a technology that has gone the way of the dodo.
> 
>  Is anyone still listening out there? Bill? Tim? Others?
> 
>  Steve Howard
> 
>  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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